Mums who spend £10k on clothes... for their toddler! A £3,000 party dress, £1,500 Dior handbag and a real fur £1,100 teddy bear hat? Yes, just some of the ludicrous items bought for children who can't be spoiled enough

Harrods in Knightsbridge has launched a 'superbrands' area for children

Would you pay £3,600 for a pink mink shrug — for a ten-year-old girl? Or £13,200 for a chinchilla coat, to be worn over a frothy confection of a party dress costing nearly £3,000?

Welcome to the world of super-luxe childrenswear and the mothers who are wealthy enough — some would say mad enough — to buy it.

One of their shrines is the fourth floor of Harrods. The store recently launched a 'superbrands' area, to give tiny trend-setters a shopping experience like their mothers enjoy.

The very idea would be dismissed by many as not only vulgar but also obscenely wasteful. But for a growing number of parents, devoted to lavishing every luxury on their little darlings, outfitting them in designer gear at this exclusive Knightsbridge enclave is the ultimate status symbol.

The decor on the shop floor is a tasteful blend of muted greys. A few choice items — mostly scaled-down versions of adult must-haves — are elegantly displayed.

There are tiny Lady Dior Nano handbags, in pink or tangerine patent calfskin, for a breath-taking £1,500. (What, one wonders, does a three-year-old keep in her handbag?) A Dolce and Gabbana tulip-print dress is priced at £775, while a teddy bear hat in real fur is £1,110.

Many parents would recoil in horror at the ludicrous prices and the blatant attempt to turn children into voracious consumers. After all, shouldn't they be playing outside, making a mess — and dirtying their mercifully inexpensive clothing in the process?

And yet, for some mothers, a designer wardrobe is more important for their offspring than it is even for them.

Tatjana Piplica, 40, lives in Kennington, South London, with her partner Mark, who owns a tailoring company. Their four-year-old daughter, Lily, started school in September.

Hanging in Lily's wardrobe are £120 dresses from French label Zadig & Voltaire, cashmere cardigans from Brora for £150 each and even £20 underwear from Petit Bateau. But buying Lily's school uniform proved more challenging. Tatjana found shopping in Marks & Spencer and John Lewis traumatic.

Tatjana, who works at a salon in Bond Street, says: 'Designer brands just don't do school-approved clothing. I know uniforms have to be hard-wearing and affordable, which is why they are mostly made of polyester, but I feel like I'm in some sort of mourning. It's been a bit of a shock.'

The start of term only made things worse. 'When Lily gets home, she either wants to keep her uniform on or run around in her underwear, so she has all these beautiful autumn clothes that she's never worn.'

Lucinda Sargeant (left) gives her 13-month-old Phoebe a wardrobe fit for a princess while Jade Buck (right) lives in Chelsea with her partner and their four-year-old son Jabin

Of course, at Lily's age, anything left languishing in her wardrobe will quickly be outgrown. It is something Tatjana has had to get used to, since she has dressed her daughter almost entirely in designer clothes since infancy.

'She had a beautiful dress from Baby Graziella that cost £200, but the first time she wore it, aged three months, she was sick all over it. I decided to keep it for best, but before I knew it she had outgrown it.

'The most I've ever spent on a single item is £230 for a coat from luxury brand Caramel. In fact, I bought two in different sizes so she has one to grow into.

'My sister lives in New York, and when we visit I buy bags full of clothes for Lily. I spend hundreds of pounds at a time.

'I try not to tell Mark how much I spend, and sometimes I hide the clothes from him.'

The family are not generally such lavish spenders and Tatjana is the first to admit that her own wardrobe is far less extravagant.

'I shop in Jigsaw and Karen Millen, but I am totally hooked on having a designer wardrobe for Lily. As she outgrows her clothes, I pass them on to friends. It helps ease my guilt.'

So, what drives a normally sensible shopper to such excess? It seems that with professional couples delaying parenthood and often opting to have smaller families, they have more money to splash out on lavish treats.

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Babyboomer grandparents, too, have reserves of cash that they are eager to fritter away on their darling grandchildren — often spending far more than they would have on their own children when they were young.

Tatjana says: 'I don't enjoy buying clothes for myself, or trying them on, but I adore buying for Lily. I suppose it is like having a little doll that I can dress as a princess.'

For many women, navigating the rails at their local department store is a trying experience. Buying designer clothes, made to fit impossibly skinny models, can be even more depressing.

And so, busy mothers with a taste for luxury and a secret hankering for designer gear may find an outlet in dressing up their daughters as exquisite mini-mes, complete with miniature versions of all the fancy labels and accessories that they crave.

Expensive clothes for children are a fairly modern phenomenon. The first luxury designer to get into childrenswear was Paris couture house Dior, back in 1967. Ralph Lauren followed a decade later.

Now, doting mums and dads can dress their daughters in Fendi, Chloe, Armani Junior, Little Marc Jacobs, and many others. While some of these garments are exquisitely well-made, even billionaire brats are prone to smearing chocolate down their sequinned party frocks.

Lucinda, who lives in Surrey with her husband Leon, 32, who owns a heating company, is an habitue of the Harrods children's department. It was there that she bought Phoebe her first pair of shoes — Tod's trainers costing £140 — when she was four months old.

'She didn't even get to walk in them before she'd grown out of them,' admits Lucinda. 'But they looked very cute.'

Other purchases include silver Sophia Webster shoes at £95. Then there was the pale grey velvet Gucci dress with a satin collar that cost more than £300: Phoebe wore it for a couple of hours on Christmas morning before her mum put her into a comfy Babygro. 'She's never worn it since,' says Lucinda. 'Even I am quite ashamed about that particular purchase.

Harrods (pictured) has recently launched a 'superbrands' area, to give tiny trend-setters a shopping experience like their mothers enjoy

'The trouble is, I just can't help myself. I will happily spend hours on the internet looking for new clothes for her.

'My friends laugh at me, but I just don't like her wearing things from Next and M&S. I like her to look a bit more glamorous, which I'm aware sounds silly.

'When she was born, a lot of friends very kindly bought clothes for her, but anything that was High Street and not to my taste, I sold on eBay.'

So what is driving women to spend more on their daughters' clothes than on their own?

Lucinda believes she inherited her shopping habit from her mother.

'Mum tries to lecture me — but she was a lot worse when my sisters and I were little. She used to fly to Le Touquet and Marbella purely to buy dresses for us,' she says.

It's an explanation that rings true to Sarah Pennells, a financial expert who runs the Savvy Woman website. 'There is some evidence that your financial mindset is fixed early on,' she says. 'Adult habits with money can be set by age seven. If children see parents wasting vast amounts on designer clothes, that is a lesson they are likely to absorb.'

Spending on childrenswear is forecast by researchers at Verdict to hit £5.3billion this year. 'The premium luxury segment of the kidswear market is one of the fastest-growing,' says Honor Strachan, a retail fashion analyst at Verdict. 'Retailers are chasing parents who love designer labels. Online shopping sites such as Alexand-alexa.com, which is a mini version of Net-a-Porter or MyTheresa, are extremely popular.'

She admits: 'It is a bit mad.'

So, is it wise to fritter away such tremendous sums on a small child who can hardly appreciate the gift?

'It's up to mums to spend their cash on whatever they want, but this kind of extravagance on kids does feel uncomfortable to me,' says Sarah Pennells.

'Mothers — even wealthy mothers — should be aware that this is not the best use of resources. Think about what you could do with the money that would bring much more long-lasting benefits for your child, such as a deposit on a flat, university fees or even a downpayment on a pension. Such investments will be paying dividends long after a pretty dress has been outgrown or discarded.'

Of course, the heady world of fashion is often far from rational. And for many women, dressing up their daughters is an outlet for their own fantasies. Lucinda Sargeant says: 'Leon tells me off for dressing Phoebe in 'over-the-top tutus'. I tell him that this is my hobby. It really is. Every day I sit in her bedroom to put together an outfit for her.

'He's got expensive hobbies of his own — he's just got his pilot's licence. And I've sacrificed how much I spend on myself so I can spend more on Phoebe,' she says.

'She has an enviable collection of cashmere, including three jumpers which cost from £70 to £120. I got some in Bonpoint at a designer outlet. I read that Victoria Beckham buys Bonpoint for Harper, so that's what drew my attention to it.' She is not alone in taking inspiration from celebrity children. Five-year-old Harper attracts hundreds of comments on her style whenever she appears in her parents' social media posts.

Celebrity culture and the proliferation of images on the internet have turned the offspring of famous people into style icons in their own right — and made parents aspire to heights of chic for their children that were unthinkable in their own youth.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte prompt a buying frenzy every time they appear in new outfits. And Tamara Ecclestone's two-year-old daughter Sophia was recently pictured in a pink Tom Ford leather biker jacket costing £4,000.

Most of these mini fashion slaves are girls, but Honor Strachan says the boys are catching up. 'Menswear has been growing fast, and that is filtering down to boys,' she says.

That is certainly true for Jade Buck, 30, who is studying for an MA and lives in Chelsea with her partner, a property developer, and their four-year-old son Jabin.

'Like most mums, I have Jabin's first pair of shoes as a keepsake,' she says. 'They are Louis Vuitton and cost £300. In fact, he has two pairs, bought for him by his Daddy.

'Jabin's style is very much refined English gentleman. I enjoy dressing him like Prince George sometimes. He has a lovely white Gucci shirt that I pair with silk shorts and matching shoes.

'My penchant for luxury clothes is pretty well known, so I was horrified after Jabin's first birthday party to see that someone well-meaning had bought him a T-shirt and trousers from Sainsbury's Tu brand!'

While most four-year-olds might get dragged on their family's weekly expedition to the supermarket, Jabin goes to Harrods with his parents every Sunday. Purchases include two £200 Aquascutum coats, a £350 Fendi blazer and a £500 Burberry mac that is a miniature copy of his mother's.

Jade has now turned to a website, Childsplay Clothing, that offers an on-demand styling team. 'I call them and within minutes their team of stylists has chosen an outfit and arranged for it to be delivered.'

Jade reckons she spends up to £10,000 a year on her son's clothes, but says she knows other mums who spend ten times as much.

Frustratingly, however, Jabin is beginning to have his own views on style and sometimes demands to wear trainers and jeans.

'Thankfully, he does still love a cashmere jumper, but I will be horrified if he ever wants to wear a T-shirt bearing a picture of a cartoon character. I don't think I could allow such a thing in the house.'